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Moving is never easy.
Of course, the goodbyes are the first step.
In his family, Matthew’s brother had been the first to go. Alfred managed to graduate and take off for college an entire year early, not even bothering to return for the holidays. Even though Al had chosen a school several states away from where they’d grown up, it was the longest he’d ever been separated from his twin.
Then, Dad and Papa couldn’t handle their homesickness any longer. Boston had lost its charm and nothing but moving back home would be able to fix them. But for them, home was thousands of kilometers away and across the Atlantic. Of course they’d offered Matthew to join them, but he’d just begun building his own life. Not to mention, adjusting to one new country would be hard enough, but Dad and Papa planned to split their time between England and France now that they could afford it.
Finally, it’s Matthew’s turn.
He chose Canada: Montreal specifically. After all, every family vacation they’d spent in Quebec only left him wanting more. Adventure awaited him in his newfound independence, especially once hockey season kicked off and the team traveled city to city.
While admittedly his current situation wasn’t his first rodeo in hauling one’s life from one place to the next, buying a house to share with your girlfriend isn’t exactly the same as renting your first flat with your university friends. Not to mention, Matthew wasn’t the one leaving for an entirely different continent. It was the utmost sacrifice and one he would never be able to repay, even if it was Kateryna’s idea.
So, Matthew would do anything in his power to make this easier for her. Never mind the jetlag, all of the legal paperwork was sure to be a nightmare. The very least he could do for the woman taking an enormous risk for him was to make their place as comfortable as he could. Home.
With input from Kateryna, Matthew had painted the house as soon as he’d been handed the keys. Next came repairing any odds and ends he found, for example, the squeaky door hinges, leaky kitchen faucet, and dodgy front steps.
The second step to moving, and undoubtedly the worst, is unpacking.
He’s officially lived in their little home for a month and only the essentials had been unpacked. Outside the bedroom, which by the way only consisted of a mattress on the floor and a dresser, towers of moving boxes crowded every corner and walkway. Despite his careful labeling of each container, he was at the mercy of the boxes whether he liked it or not. It only got worse when Kateryna finally arrived and her belongings soon followed through the mail. Albeit, not many, as she refused Matthew’s help with the exorbitant shipping costs from Ukraine to Canada.
So their first few days officially living together had been spent trying to make some sort of dent in the impenetrable cardboard fortress.
“I’m afraid you’re only getting honey, we’re out of milk.” Kateryna calls, mugs in hand. Steam trails behind her as she weaves her way around the tower of moving boxes blocking the kitchen from the main living space. Miraculously, she survives the trip to the pile of boxes Matthew’s currently working on.
“Did you-”
“ Yes, ” she sighs, handing the cup to Matthew. It’s one of their new ones, covered in sunflowers. They’d taken a trip to Walmart on Kateryna’s second day to get some necessities. Admittedly there were quite a few impulse purchases which had been mutually agreed upon necessities, and this particular set of mugs happened to be one of them. “I remembered you like to ruin your tea.”
“It’s not ruined !” He sips the amber concoction. It doesn’t matter what it is, coffee or tea, but if Matthew’s going to drink something hot, it better be sweet! Even if he can’t decipher what kind of tea Kateryna’s made, the now dessert-like quality of the beverage was just right. “It’s perfect, actually. Mm , thank you.”
Kateryna settles on the floor beside him, her mug delicately placed on the coffee table to her right. This was the only piece of furniture they’d managed to assemble thus far.
“What’s in this one?” Kateryna notions to the box with her head.
“According to the label,” he twists the box, the cardboard swishing against the hardwood as he does so. “Whatever qualifies as ‘Office.’”
Just for emphasis, Matthew pulls a black disc from the box, bouncing the weight of it in his hand. A paperweight reading “I give zero pucks” he’d been gifted when he’d been accepted to university on a hockey scholarship. Unfortunately, Matthew does in fact “give a puck,” as despite the embarrassment the text on the paperweight causes, he can’t bring himself to get rid of it. Albeit, it’s doomed to live face down. He hands it to Kateryna, digging further in the box.
“ Aw , cute!”
“If you say so,” Matthew stifles a laugh. Amongst a handful of other knick-knacks and memorabilia are books he’d managed to cram into odd places to keep his belongings from being thrown around. A collection of Papa’s recipes, college textbooks from his college courses, and… oh!
He pulls a thick book with a plush leather cover from the box. Immediately, nothing else matters. It took quite a few years, but at last, he’s finally thankful for his fathers’ incessant need to capture every second of their lives. Both the important and the mundane were scrapbooked into these pages.
“What’s this?” Kateryna pulls herself closer to him, resting her head on his shoulder.
“Papa and Dad had scrapbooks for Al and I. You’d be surprised at the weird things they kept,” he snorts. “Actually, I think they might still have our baby teeth.”
“C’mon! Open it, I wanna see your baby pictures!”
“You’re friends with Papa on Facebook, how have you not seen them? They’re literally everywhere.”
“Aw,” Kateryna clicks. “You’re so cute. You think I actually check Facebook?”
“You’re like ten years older than me, Facebook is so reasonable for you to be using!”
“ Seven years!” Kateryna playfully swats his arm. “You’re making me out to be some cradle-robber? You’re about to be twenty-four!”
“Alright, alright,” Matthew manages between unsuccessfully stifled laughter.
On the first page of the scrapbook rests several handwritten notes; An explanation for the book, a letter from Papa, and a letter from Dad. He remembers the way Papa cried when they looked through this together for the first time. A gift on his eighteenth birthday.
He turns the page and is greeted by July 1998. Four photos grace each page and every one of them feature Matthew and his brother days after they’d been brought home. The love and excitement his parents poured into these pages were felt even now. Someone, probably Dad, had decorated the page with pressed irises and the same white and red roses Papa had painted on the nursery furniture.
“Oh, honey… This is beautiful. Which one are you?”
Matthew’s hand moves to point to one of the infants, but freezes.
“I… actually don’t know.”
Identical twins whose faces were as equally pink and wrinkly leaves a lot of room for guesswork. It’s no wonder he and Alfred had to be color coded, even after their hair finally started growing in. Mathew remembers Alfred’s natural hair. Brown, significantly darker than his. Now, just like Papa, his brother is a bottle blond.
“I’m going to guess. This one’s you,” Kateryna points towards the last photo on the page. It’s Papa holding one of them and this may be the most disheveled he’s ever seen his father. Papa’s hair falls in broken curls over his shoulders and the bags beneath his eyes suggest there hadn’t been more than an hour’s worth of sleep in the Kirkland-Bonnefoy household. Despite it all, Papa’s eyes are the same ones he’s ever known—full of love and admiration.
“It’s possible.”
“I think it’s you.” Kateryna rubs his arm in reassurance. Matthew begins flipping the pages again until she stops him. “ Oh my god-”
October 31, 1998. His first Halloween.
He and Alfred are seated upon their father’s laps on the front steps of their house. Both infants are dressed up in obnoxious little lobster costumes, Papa’s dressed as a chef, and Dad looks like he’s meant to be a waiter.
“They really embraced New England for a bit, eh?”
“This is too sweet. I remember dressing Nata up when she was really young, but we didn’t do anything like this. ” Kateryna can barely contain herself. “Did you do this every year?”
“I think this was the only time they dressed up, too, but yeah. If I remember right, they put us in matching costumes until Alfred started asking to be a superhero every year.”
“Oh, that’s too cute.”
Matthew continues flipping through the book, telling Kateryna the story behind each and every photograph.
There’s the day he lost his first tooth. Well, teeth . He and Alfred had been riding their bikes down the street until Matthew’s tire hit the wrong rock. It all happened so fast; He’d been thrown over the handlebars into a patch of gravel and his two front teeth had been knocked out. Papa had been absolutely hysterical, so it was up to Dad to clean him up before they took off for urgent care.
Several photos from the trip they took to visit Tante Lucille. Matthew doesn’t remember anything other than the sheer number of gifts their aunt gave them, much to Dad’s disapproval. Oh, and the beach. Alfred stupidly got pinched by not one, but three separate crabs. They were around ten at the time.
Matthew fondly recalls the several vacations they’d taken to visit Uncle Alasdair and his partner, Sigurd. If not for them, Matthew may not have actually found hockey to begin with. Sigurd had been an Olympic level ice skater in his prime and every recording of his routines absolutely enamored Matthew. His uncles had been the ones to teach him to skate. He misses them. He should get them tickets to his next match, all expenses paid. It’s the very least he can do.
Throughout his whole life, Matthew had people to love and guide him. So many memories he’d nearly forgotten lived in this invaluable treasure of a book.
Suddenly, an idea.
“Hey, you remember that big picture frame you liked when we were at Walmart?”
“Uh, I think so. Why?”
“I want to put some of these up. I’ll have to get them scanned and print copies. Do you have any you’d want to hang?”
“Oh! I’d have to go digging for some. I can try talking to Mama about it, but my parents were never as thorough as yours.”
“That’s surprising. Aren’t you the eldest?”
“Yeah, but my parents like to live in the moment. Old-fashioned. Gotta remember mine are a bit older than yours.” Kateryna winks, nudging Matthew’s side.
“I’m sure there’s something . I want your pictures up there, too.” Matthew closes the book, keeping a hand wedged in the pages so as to not lose his place. “This is our house. Both of our pictures deserve a place here.”
“It feels so good to hear that.”
“Right?” Matthew leans into Kateryna. “And we’ll have plenty of time to make even more memories.”
“ Stop ,” Kateryna whines. “You’ll make me cry!”
Finally, she smiles and reaches for Matthew’s face, pulling him into a kiss.
Two weeks later and their living room is beginning to look more homely. Most of the boxes have finally been unpacked, belongings strewn about the house in their forever homes. Not to mention, there was now room to start assembling furniture and it was possible to walk from one room to the next without tripping. Most importantly, the pair had run back out to Walmart to get an array of picture frames for their walls and other spaces.
Most notably came honeycombed amalgamation of picture frames who now sat proudly before the entrance to the kitchen. The gold accentuated the red theme of the living room spectacularly. It turns out Matthew and Kateryna’s style preferences mesh perfectly.
She practically begged Matthew to put the picture of the Halloween lobsters on the wall, and of course, there was no way he wouldn’t indulge her. From Matthew’s family, he’d also included pictures from his first ever hockey game, a hiking trip with Uncle Alasdair and Sigurd, and a picture of him and Alfred ready for their first day of school.
When Kateryna’s mother had sent their own set of family photographs, she and Matthew spent the evening snuggled up on their brand new couch going over the story behind each and every one.
The very first picture was of a young Kateryna holding a bream she’d caught all by herself! She excitedly recalled how her father had taken her on a day trip fishing with family friends and cousins. He’d been so proud of her and from there-on-out, she was his designated fishing buddy.
Her retelling of the day Natalya was born nearly brought Matthew to tears. He’d only met Kateryna’ sister once before, briefly, but it was hard to imagine the steely young woman he’d spoken with over video call as the helpless baby his partner describes. She’d been born the day after Kateryna’s eleventh birthday. Evident by her huge grin, Kateryna’s first meeting with her sister had been an incredible experience.
Matthew’s favorite picture is of Kateryna and a cousin from what she explained to be a family party. A wedding? Or a reunion of some sort. Kateryna owned several vyshyvankas and wore them as she pleased, but the one in the photograph had been embroidered by her grandmother; Red floral and geometric patterned embroidery donned the expanses of her sleeves. Matthew was drawn to the brilliance of her eyes, robust and sweet, like the expanse of sky above her.
And now their lives were fully intertwined. Matthew and Kateryna had picked their favorite pictures of the two of them during the three years they’ve been together.
In one, Kateryna planted a kiss on Matthew’s cheek, who was fresh off of the ice in his Canadiens jersey. He’d barely had time to remove his helmet before she’d enveloped him, showering him in praise for how well he’d played and how proud she was. Thank god they’d won that game! It was the first time he’d flown her out to come see him play.
Last spring they visited a public garden. Considering their mutual love for the outdoors, that date had gone off without a hitch. It was where they’d first thrown out the idea of moving in together. What flowers would they grow in their garden?
Of all of their combined photographs, two of the most recent were from Kateryna’s last visit to North America. They’d taken a brief vacation to Niagara Falls and then down to Boston. Matthew would consider the New England Aquarium too expensive for what you get in one trip, but seeing the way Kateryna fawned over the penguins made it entirely worth it.
Surely, they would need to be buying more picture frames in the years to come. With all of the frames they bought already filled, this was only the beginning of a lifetime dedicated to making new memories together. The rest of their lives. Together .
He was so damn lucky.
On a table just before the walkway into the kitchen, they’d set up some of Matthew’s never ending knick-knacks and tchotchkes Kateryna couldn’t resist buying. Both of their parents’ wedding portraits adorned the table, a vase of sunflowers sat between them. One day, hopefully soon, Matthew and Kateryna’s own wedding picture would join them.